Huawei Honor 3c Review: Best Value Midranger?

Huawei introduced their much-anticipated Honor 3c smartphones last month here in Nepal and that too at a decent price of NPR.24000(The market value is around NPR. 22500). Let’s check on our review if this phone is punching above its weight.

OVERVIEW

Honor 3c offers a 5 ″(720 x 1280 pixels ~294 ppi pixel density) IPS LCD display and runs on a 1.3 GHz Quad-Core MediaTek processor with 2 GB of RAM. On-board you get 8 GB of storage but you can expand it further with microSD card expandable up to 32 GB.

For taking pictures it comes with an 8 MP Sony BSI camera with assisted LED flash at the back and a front facing 5 MP camera for selfies. Juicing up the device is a rather generous 2,300 mAh battery. It currently runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with Emotion UI on top of it.

PROS

Very good HD Screen

2 GB of RAM

Excellent Battery Life

CONS

MediaTek Processor overheating issues

Emotion UI

DESIGN AND BUILD QUALITY

Being a midrange phone, the Huawei honor 3c has all plastic body but the quality of plastic doesn’t feel cheap.The plastic has a glossy slippery back but we wished the back had a matt finish. Standing a 9.1 mm thick and weighing just 140gms, the phone doesn’t feel heavy in the hands.

The power and volume keys are made from metal and feel premium.

On the bottom, we have a micro-USB port and a microphone.

On the backside, we have an 8MP camera with LED flash and a noise cancellation mic on the top. We have the speaker grill on the left side.

The back of the honor 3c is removable and the back cover seems to be durable but a flip cover is always recommended.Inside the phone, we have a 2 micro-SIM slots and a microSD slot for memory expansion. Out of the two SIM slots, one is 3G+ i.e HPSDA 2100 and another is 2G.

SCREEN

Given the price, the Honor 3c’s greatest attribute is the screen. With HD 720p resolution and a 5-inch display, it has quite a respectable pixel density of 294ppi.The Screen is based on IPS technology and hence it has a good color saturation, decent contrast level and very bright and vivid. The touch of the screen is also very responsive and can support up to 10 fingers. Overall, the screen of Honor 3c is one of the best under its price segment. Only cons about the screen are there is no Gorilla Glass protection.

USER INTERFACE

This phone currently runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly bean with Emotion UI V2.0 on top of it. KitKat update should be rolling out soon as well. The Chinese version of Honor 3c has already got it so it’s just a matter of time for international users.

The Emotion UI is a bit different. You don’t have an App drawer so all apps are placed on the home screen like in iPhone. There are some cool features added in the Emotion UI. For eg., Networked apps is a great app where you can select which connectivity to us: WIFI or DATA. Power Saving apps allow you to save battery life to some extent.But the best feature of Honor 3c’s software is the “Knock on”. Double tapping the screen wakes up your phone.

Here are some screen shots of Emotion UI :

PERFORMANCE

The Honor 3c is powered by a MediaTek MT6582 Chipset. There are 4 cortex A7 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz. The Quad Core processor is paired with MALI 400MP2 GPU. It has 2GB of RAM, twice as much as seen in other mid-range handset. We have a 8 GB of internal storage that can be expanded upon by inserting a MicroSD card. Many apps and games can be moved from internal storage to MicroSD. The performance of this device is fast. You won’t feel lag while running multiple application while scrolling through home screen or browsing. Moreover, the additional RAM comes handy while multitasking. You can play all source of game, but the rendering and detailing won’t be great as high-end devices.You will notice heating issues on the backside while playing high-end games. The device scores around 6000 in Quadrant Standard, 17000 in Antutu and 54.3 FPS in NenaMark2.

CAMERA

Honor 3c features an 8MP rear camera which in my opinion produces average photo quality. You can capture photos in different modes like HDR and panorama. You can record videos at 1080P at 30 frames per second. The details of the photo aren’t that bad but the color and contrast level are relatively low. The picture quality falls dramatically in low light but thanks to LED flash, it can take some good shots. Honor 3c is a selfie lover’s dream with its 5MP front camera that has a wide angle lens to include all your friends 😉

BATTERY

With 2300 mAh battery, the Honor 3c holds enough charge to last for a whole day of normal usage. On the benchmark test, it lasted around 16hrs and we often used WIFI, GPS, Bluetooth and played games for a long time.

AUDIO & CALL QUALITY

Huawei Honor 3c features DTS sound and is loud when played on the speaker. While playing games, the sound is nice and pleasant. However, the call quality is not that great. There is some distortion while calling.

CONNECTIVITY

Honor 3c is a Dual SIM phone. SIM-1 is 3G+ which means it supports downlink speeds of up to 42 Mbit/s. SIM-2 is 2G. For connectivity, there is Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0. However, there is no NFC and USB on the go (OTG).

INSIDE THE BOX

Handset

Ear piece

Wall Charger

Data Cable

Flip cover

Screen Guard

Warranty card

Quick Guide

VERDICT

Huawei Honor 3c offers premium features at a very affordable price. As compared to Samsung or HTC, it has almost double the specs. The only downside to this otherwise excellent phone is the low-cost MediaTek chipset that heats up occasionally. We wished it was Snapdragon 400!